U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin will speak at a public forum at St. Margaret Catholic Church's auditorium at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Bayou La Batre. She and others will be discussing mental health issues related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Benjamin, who founded a clinic in Bayou La Batre and lived in Daphne before being appointed by President Barack Obama, has spoken previously about how the oil spill might harm mental health and what people should do to seek treatment.

Research has shown that manmade disasters such as oil spills can have different and in some cases more damaging mental health effects than natural disasters such as hurricanes.